


things get heavy, but you know we ain't done yet

by wafflesofdoom



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Developing Relationship, M/M, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 23:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30063024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflesofdoom/pseuds/wafflesofdoom
Summary: It’s not as though Buck took any great joy in hiding a major part of who he was from his closest friends and colleagues – really, he didn’t.  But – it’s not as though he could go around telling the world he was a witch, could he? The first rule drummed into his head as a child wasn’t to always say please or thank you – it was to never tell anyone about your magic.Never, ever, ever. Not for friendship, or love, not for anything. Not even to save your own life – if it came to that.But what if it was to save someone elses life?
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 25
Kudos: 331





	things get heavy, but you know we ain't done yet

**Author's Note:**

> brief warning for implied character death in this one.
> 
> title from 'here with me' by elina (great song, listened to it mostly the entire time i was writing this.)

It’s not as though Buck took any great joy in hiding a major part of who he was from his closest friends and colleagues – really, he didn’t.

But – it’s not as though he could go around telling the world he was a witch, could he? He was fairly confident the world had moved on from its whole ‘burning witches at the stake’ phase, but that didn’t change the necessity to keep his abilities secret. The first rule drummed into his head as a child wasn’t to always say please or thank you – it was to never tell anyone about your magic.

Never, ever, ever. Not for friendship, or love, not for anything.

Not even to save your own life – if it came to that.

Maddie used to remind him of that – she still did, more often than Buck felt was necessary, considering he

He’d never actually slipped up and told anyone, not even Abby, but he appreciated her concern came from a place of caring.

There was so much more to the world than most humans realised, and not everyone loved the idea of supernatural creatures living among them. Which was a pity, really – Buck was sure Christopher would be utterly delighted if he knew he’d met a real-life witch – two of them, in fact.

“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” Maddie commented from where she was sitting on Buck’s couch, tucking into a family sized bag of potato chips.

Buck sighed, nodding. There were a couple of times of year when the veil between the human world, and the supernatural world was at its thinnest, and Halloween was the worst – for days, leading up to the 31st of October, you could taste the magic in the air, heavy with iron, crackling and familiar and flooding Buck’s body with power that was close to impossible to hide.

Once, he’d almost taken flight from the fire station, just about managing to throw himself into a toilet stall before he turned into a literal fucking _bat_ mid-shift.

It had been a rough day.

“I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy, but I’m feeling it more than ever this year,” Maddie admitted.

“Me too,” Buck echoed. “Like – it’s as if there’s too much magic around this year, right? I know I feel it more than most, but something isn’t right, Maddie.”

Maddie shook her head. “It’s just because its California, Buck,” she reassured. “This place is normally so devoid of magic that any increase feels wrong.”

Buck wasn’t sure he agreed, but he didn’t see the point in arguing. “Are you going to tell Chimney? About your powers, I mean,” he asked, sitting down next to Maddie on the couch.

“No,” Maddie’s reply was firm.

Buck raised an eyebrow. “And when the baby comes and starts _sneezing_ magic?”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “We don’t know for sure that this little one is going to be a witch, Evan.”

“I mean, we do,” Buck corrected. “Magical genes are the dominant ones. Chim’ll be lucky if this kid looks even _slightly_ related to him.”

“You know I can’t tell him, Buck.”

“I mean, you _could_.”

Maddie raised an eyebrow. “Neither Howie or I want to get married any time soon, Evan, and you know as well as I do that you can’t tell a mortal about your powers unless there’s a ring ceremony involved.”

“It’s archaic,” Buck mumbled, flopping down beside Maddie on his couch. He’d always hated the way that the magical world would only allow you to tell someone you loved about your magical powers if you married them – it made it worse, if you asked him. Imagine – you fall so madly in love with someone that you decide to get married, and on your honeymoon they tell you oh, sorry I didn’t mention it before, but I’m actually a witch? Oh yeah – a real-life, burn at the stake kind of witch. Sorry for not telling you?

Buck couldn’t see that going well – no matter how in love you were.

“It’s for our safety,” Maddie reminded, her tone making Buck feel like a child, all over again.

“Do you really think Chimney would tell anyone? Or Eddie – or anyone from the 118, for that matter?”

“I’d like to think they wouldn’t,” Maddie said. “But you don’t know how a person might react to finding out, Buck. There’s a reason there’s a ring ceremony.”

“Yeah, to put a literal curse on your spouse and kill them if they ever try and spill your secrets. Who is ever going to agree to that?”

“It doesn’t kill them,” Maddie soothed. “Anymore, at least. It’s just a bewitching curse, now.”

Buck glared at his sister. “ _Just_ a bewitching curse? It erases any memory they have of you, Madeline. Not to mention the literal gagging curse they put on us as children so every time we even try and speak about our powers with a mortal, you start _choking_.”

Buck felt bad, really, that Abby had blamed herself for the whole almost choking to death at dinner incident – but it had been his fault, actually, because he’d nearly let something slip about his abilities – entirely by accident, in his own defence - and the choking had started in full force.

“Don’t call me Madeline, you know it’s not my name,” Maddie admonished. “And it has to be something serious, Buck – otherwise supernatural creatures would just go around telling everyone they were half in love with that they had magical powers. As much as you’d like to show the people you love the truth of your life, you can’t – not now, not ever. If you fall in love with a mortal – really in love – then one day, they can know. And you’re just lucky they don’t have it so we’re throwing up spiders, these days,” she said pointedly.

“I know all this already, Maddie. And I would prefer the spiders, for your information.”

“I’m just reminding you, because you get impulsive and crazy when there’s this much magic in the air, and I don’t want you to do something that’s going to get you pulled in front of the Council,” Maddie warned, poking Buck in the side.

Buck grinned. “They’d love to see me again.”

“You’re not fifteen anymore,” Maddie fixed Buck with a serious glare. “You’ve been a magical adult for a long time, Evan, and if you do something stupid, they’re going to strip you of your powers. You know this.”

“I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t reassure me,” Maddie sighed. “You’ve been doing stupid things since the day you were born, Buck.”

Pennsylvania, and most of the East Coast of the United States, was a hub of magic. There was lots of reasons for it – lay-lines, for one, the criss-crossing pattern of magical lines covering most of that part of the country, giving it what felt like endless amounts of magic, there for the taking. And that was before you got into the rich history of the magic that was native to America – magic those first generations of European colonisers had been so determined to stamp out in the name of progress and religion.

There was also the fact that a significantly large number of those who’d come to the US in those days had been witches and other supernatural creatures looking for new opportunities. Europe was old, and the magic there was different – Buck had felt that for himself, once – but it was stretched thinner, and the veil between the magic and the mortal was more fragile there, and lots of witches hadn’t liked that, hadn’t liked how many mortals had figured out their magical secrets for themselves.

So America it was.

The East Coast was a hub of magic – and California wasn’t. It was part of why Buck had come running to Los Angeles – he was tired, of magic, of having to control himself, of sleepy, East coast towns where there wasn’t a mortal for miles around. He’d found it stiflingly oppressive, in lots of ways – and God, had it been _judgemental_.

_Evan, you’ve got more power than a witch like you will ever be able to make use of._

_Evan, you’re sixteen now and you’ve gone through your witching hour – why can’t you just control yourself?_

_Evan, Evan, Evan – you’re such a disappointment, Evan._

He could hear his mother’s squeaky, judgemental voice every time he thought too hard about the Before. That’s what Buck called it in his head – the Before was life in Pennsylvania, and the After was the world Buck discovered once he’d left.

There had been Europe, first – a brief stint with a Celtic witch commune in the West of Ireland, a few months spent in Italy, and then Germany, and Slovakia and Poland, all before he’d rounded it off with a trip to Greece. Magic was intertwined with mortal life there in ways that had amazed Buck – they kept the same secrets his coven in Pennsylvania had, sure, but in a way that just didn’t feel as oppressive.

Even mortals could feel the magic in those ancient cities – they just didn’t know it was magic that they were feeling. They always said it was history, in guidebooks – that you could feel the history and culture of these beautiful old cities beneath your feet when you visited. That wasn’t true – it was magic, and magical memory, eons of magical lives lived imprinted across every inch of the continent.

Then there had been South America.

South America had been great – really, really great. Buck credited it with a lot of his own personal development, if he was to be cheesy about it. He really was the great American cliché, he’d gone to Europe, and then South America to find himself – a hippie coven in Brazil, magical communities in Columbia, in Bolivia.

He’d learned about magic more in the two years he’d spent travelling than he ever had in Pennsylvania.

Grimacing as he looked into the pot that Eddie had left briefly unattended so he could check on Christopher, Buck called out. “I’m just going to add some seasoning to this, Eddie,” he said, blue sparks leaving his fingers and hopefully turning Eddie’s latest attempt at home-style cooking into something more edible.

Picking up the pepper mill he’d forced Eddie to buy, Buck put on a show of adding some to the dish, Eddie returning with a grumpy look on his face.

“I did season it!” he defended, grabbing a spoon.

“I know, but you never add enough salt and pepper,” Buck lied, smiling sweetly at his best friend.

Magic was great, for lots of reasons. Buck could help people, because of it – through little things like making Eddie’s food edible or making sure their local ice-cream parlour always had Christopher’s favourite flavour in – and he could help in bigger ways, like with people’s pain, by being able to walk through fire more easily than his mortal colleagues did.

Magic didn’t have many rules – just a few unbreakable ones.

  1. _You don’t mess with death._



Witches, regardless of how powerful, did not have the right to mess with death. It was a fundamental rule – if someone dies, you have to let them stay dead. If someone is dying, and there is no medically sound way to help them, you give them comfort, and you let them die. You don’t play God – Buck heard that warning over, and over as a child.

Death magic was dangerous. It was the kind of magic that would send any witch, even the best of them, completely insane – death magic takes part of you in return for a spell, and it was deceiving. Bringing someone back from the dead – you don’t bring that person back the way they had been in their mortal life.

It’s not like you could make a zombie –

But, you’d make close enough to one.

Those who are dying, die, and those who are dead, are to remain dead. That was the natural cycle of life, and if you messed with that, the knock on effect was immeasurable. It would be bad, oh so very bad – bad beyond comprehension.

  1. _You don’t tell mortals about your powers._



Buck hated that rule. He understood it, sure – but he hated it. His magic was part of him, and so many of the people he loved the most in the world could never know, and Buck had never dealt well with it.

Okay – he knew why witches were so secretive. For a pretty significant chunk of their modern history, his kind had been burned at the stake, and drowned (contrary to popular belief – if you burn a witch alive, or tie rocks to them and throw them in a lake, they’ll die just like any other mortal. Magic didn’t equal immortality.)

But –

No, he still understood it. In a world so unable to accept people being different from the accepted norm, magic probably wouldn’t be well received by a significant chunk of the population.

Buck just wished –

He wished he didn’t feel so alone in his magic, sometimes.

“Where did you go?” Eddie’s curious voice brought Buck back to reality.

Buck smiled. “Just thinking about Halloween,” he shrugged, leaning against the kitchen counter. “I can’t wait to see the little man in his costume. He’s going to be so cute, Eddie.”

  1. _Witches can’t live without a coven._



Sure, a coven was a group of witches – Buck knew that.

But sometimes –

Sometimes he imagined a coven where it was him, and Eddie, and Christopher – and the 118 – together, that they were the people he could share his life, all of his life, with.

But that wasn’t his reality.

Buck knew he and Maddie were playing a dangerous game, living in Los Angeles without a coven – but they’d been fine, so far.

It just meant that week’s like this one, where magic was oozing beyond lay-lines, beyond borders, beyond all its logical forms, everything was harder, because they were alone. Spotting a fae perching on Eddie’s windowsill, Buck made sure Eddie was focused on dinner, chatting about Christopher’s costume, before he pushed the creature away with a small huff of magic, hoping his expression made it clear.

_You won’t find what you’re looking for here._

_This is a mortal house._

Buck rolled his eyes as the fae stuck their tongue out at him, flying away in a huff. They were dramatic little creatures – Buck quite enjoyed them, most of the time, but he couldn’t risk a supernatural creature being so close, not at this time of the year.

It could expose him – because he wasn’t sure if Christopher would be able to see the fae, when the veil was as thin as it was. It was all too likely he would, because kids were so much more open to the unknown – and while it would make Christopher’s year, it would break Buck’s heart, because he’d have to erase the kids memory.

That was the wonderful thing about kids Christopher’s age – they were so innocent and believed in the magic of the world so easily, so passionately, that sometimes their childhood dreams of magic forced the veil to drop.

It was sweet, in so many ways – that mortal children believed in magic enough to be shown it, as kids – but it was dangerous, as much as it was sweet.

Not every magical being was a good one – and some liked to mess with mortals.

“You’re on another planet today,” Eddie teased softly, poking Buck gently in the side, switching off the gas, the hob shuddering into silence.

Buck grinned at his best friend, shaking his head in response. “I’m just happy,” he admitted, shrugging. “Here, with you and Chris.”

Eddie smiled, that dazzling, million dollar, melt your heart right to your toes smile that Buck wasn’t sure he’d ever tired of – or know how to deal with how it made him feel, comfortable and at home and safe, things Buck had rarely felt in his twenty-eight years of life. “You know I’m happier with you here too,” Eddie’s voice was soft as he brushed a hand against Buck’s side, Buck wondering how Eddie couldn’t feel how his every touch set Buck’s body on fucking fire. “This is your home too, Evan.”

Sure, Buck was supposed to have a coven – every old magical law said as such, that witches couldn’t survive without one, a support network, a family bound together by magic. Maybe that was how it was supposed to be.

But - Buck had found what he had been looking for with Eddie, with Christopher.

And maybe he didn’t get to have the romance, but he got to have a family of his own, and that was enough.

Who needed a coven anyway?

Buck wasn’t sure if he could describe the feeling of being over-magicked to a mortal – but if he had to try, he’d say it felt like a really, really bad hangover. But even that was too kind a descriptor for the way Buck felt, leaning against the fire-truck, pale and sweaty.

“Someone go a little too hard with their Friday night?” Hen asked teasingly.

Eddie raised an eyebrow, looking at Buck. “If watching Halloweentown with me and Chris could be considered going too hard,” he said, pressing the back of his hand to Buck’s forehead, Buck’s magic screaming inside his body at the familiar touch, Buck gritting his teeth as he forced himself not to pin Eddie against the fire-truck. “You must be coming down with something, Buck.”

“’M fine,” Buck shook his head, trying to reassure his team.

“Maybe you picked it up from Maddie,” Chimney said. “I think she’s got the flu. She didn’t look great when I left this morning.”

_Oh, if only you knew, Chimney my friend._

“I’m fine,” Buck reassured again. “Just haven’t been sleeping very well, lately.”

_Because he’s had a family of fae living in his fucking bathtub for a week straight now – and a wood nymph took up residence on his balcony the previous day, singing constantly as they waited for Halloween to tick around._

“Maybe if you didn’t sleep on Eddie’s couch, every night you’re not on shift, and actually slept in your own bed, you’d sleep better,” Hen pointed out, finishing up her restock of the ambulance.

_He could guarantee that wasn’t the case. Fae were a noisy bunch._

Buck stuck his tongue out at her, enjoying the way Hen rolled her eyes – but laughed, all the same. “I like being around for Chris,” he shrugged, glancing at Eddie. “It’s Halloween! He’s excited to do all these traditions I never had growing up, it’s fun.”

“You and Maddie really never did get to celebrate Halloween growing up, did you?” Chimney asked.

Buck swallowed thickly. That wasn’t entirely correct – Halloween was any magical creature’s favourite time of year. But he couldn’t tell his team about magical All Hallows Eve balls and witching traditions – or the time he got in trouble for hexing a mortal to puke literal rainbows. Or the fact that their pet cat would turn back into their Uncle Samuel on Halloween and end up drunk when he was forced back into cat form, and how funny drunk cats are. He definitely couldn’t tell them about the party the trolls next door threw every year for Halloween, and how he lost his virginity to a wood nymph on Halloween when he was seventeen and ended up so drunk on nymph pheromones that his parents had to lock him inside his own bedroom for a week.

“Our parents are pretty religious,” Buck lied. “So they didn’t like that sort of thing.”

“Chris is more than making up for the years he missed,” Eddie reassured. “We’re working our way through all the classic Halloween movies this week.”

Buck grinned. “Little man has my back,” he said, and before he could continue, the alarms went off, the team swinging into action. Buck – he never loved this any less, the adrenaline rush that came with getting his turnout gear on, swinging himself up into the driver’s seat, ready to face whatever emergency he was being called to.

He was a firefighter to help people – that was his reason to wake up and do this job, day after day. But any first responder who claimed they weren’t at least a little bit of an adrenaline junkie was a barefaced liar, if you asked him – because as adrenaline coursed through his body, Buck felt a few moments of the peace he’d spent most of his life searching for.

And that made it all the more worthy of a career.

Buck knew the moment they stepped on scene that something magical was going on. He could smell it, taste it, the acrid taste of iron hitting the back of his throat as he stepped out of the truck, only half listening to Bobby’s instructions.

“It looks like the fire is already out,” Bobby said. “Buck, Eddie, you two take point on downstairs – Allen, Reynolds, you check out upstairs, see if we can find out what started this.”

Buck nodded, barely waiting for Eddie to get his mask on before he entered the house, scanning the rooms for clues. It seemed like a normal enough house – nothing too obviously magical standing out to him.

Unless –

The basement.

“Cap, there’s a weird smell coming from the basement,” Buck said into the radio, ignoring Eddie’s raised eyebrow. “Eddie and I will check it out.”

“How are you smelling anything?” Eddie questioned as Buck kicked into the doorway to the basement, following him down there anyway. Eddie’s complete loyalty and faith in Buck – and in his firefighting abilities – was overwhelming, at the best of times.

Reassuring, but overwhelming.

“It’s just a hunch,” Buck lied. The mask – it didn’t really do anything for Buck, in situations like these. He could smell magic from miles away.

His hunch proved correct as they entered the basement, a huddle of magical creatures standing over a burnt out cauldron. Mentally apologising to Eddie, Buck murmured under his breath, his friend freezing in place on the stairs.

“You’re not a mortal,” one of them, an older troll, said, looking at Buck curiously.

“No, I’m not,” Buck said, tugging his mask off. “I’m a witch, and you’re lucky I’m here. What did you do?”

“We don’t answer to you, witch!” another troll said – a younger one, this time.

“When you do something stupid enough to get the attention of the mortal authorities, it does,” Buck hissed, glanced around the room. “Are you seriously down here trying to open a hell portal?”

The wood nymph in the back at least had the decency to look ashamed.

The older troll sniffed at Buck. “I don’t recognise you,” he said. “And I know every witch in this city. Which coven are you in?”

“I’m not in a coven,” Buck replied simply, wincing at the chorus of shocked responses he got from the gaggle of creatures. “Hey! I am not the problem we’re solving here, quit it.”

“But you know how dangerous it is to live without a coven!” the youngest of the group, a barely of age banshee, said, her eyes wide with shock.

“My problems are mine,” Buck warned, uneasy as the younger ones of the group startled at the change in his tone, Buck knowing his face was sparking blue as he spoke. He didn’t like showing off his power – never did, never basked in the genuine fear of others as they realised just how powerful he was like others would – but he was limited in time.

“Sorry, sir,” the banshee mumbled.

“I’m sorry,” Buck stumbled over his words. “I just don’t have much time before I’ll need to report back to my boss. Do I need to call the Council in, or are you going to get this sorted out quickly?” he asked, staring at the oldest – the ringleader, he assumed.

“No need to get the Council involved,” the oldest troll shook his head. “We’d be indebted to you if you could help us cover this up.”

Buck sighed. “I don’t want your debt,” he sighed. “I want people to stop opening up hell portals in mortal basements,” he continued, taking a deep breath, the air crackling with magic as he muttered under this breath. “There – the fire started with a faulty microwave upstairs. My partner and I will find the evidence on our second sweep. Get this cleaned up – or I will call the Council in. I’ll drive by later tonight, you got it?”

“Thank you,” the wood nymph said. “We appreciate it.”

“You better unfreeze your friend,” the oldest troll said, droll in his response. “You know he’ll already have a hell of a headache.”

“Yes, thank you, I am aware of how magic works – unlike you, apparently!” Buck hissed, turning to unfreeze Eddie, his partner still frozen perfectly in place.

“The child,” the banshee called, her eyes wide with fear as she looked at Buck. “You must protect the child.”

“Is she – is she having a vision?” Buck raised an eyebrow, fixing his mask back in place.

“The child!” the banshee pleaded. “You must – you must protect them. You must.”

Before Buck could push her for more, his radio went off.

“Buck? Eddie? Report, please.”

Buck sighed, unfreezing Eddie with a quick movement of his fingers, his partner looking at him confused, stumbling on the steps. “Nothing on our side yet, Cap,” he said, glaring at the obnoxious troll who was giggling at Eddie’s unsteadiness. “We’ll sweep the basement and check upstairs again,” he finished, looking at Eddie. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I – I don’t know,” Eddie admitted, stumbling down the final few steps. “I feel like I blacked out for a second.”

“You’re getting old,” Buck said cheerfully, slapping Eddie’s shoulder, taking far too much enjoyment in the squeak that left the oldest troll’s mouth as Buck purposely stood on one of his feet, leading a dazed Eddie around the basement. “I must have been smelling something else – there’s nothing down here, Eds,” he shrugged. “Let’s do the kitchen again.”

Eddie nodded, leading them out of the basement.

“The child!” the banshee called, the desperation in her voice making Buck’s heart twist in his chest. “You must protect them!”

“Maddie, it was weird,” Buck said, glancing over his shoulder to make sure the sound barrier between them and Chimney was still working, his friend frozen in place in the kitchen. “She – she seemed desperate, like something really terrible was going to happen if I didn’t listen to her.”

“You said she seemed young, right?”

Buck nodded.

“Young banshee’s get it wrong all the time, Evan,” Maddie reassured. “We got it wrong, when we were first learning how to use our magic – and you said they’d just tried to open a hell portal. I’m sure she was just shaken up.”

“What if she’s not wrong?” Buck asked, chewing on the skin at the side of his finger, Maddie slapping his hand out of the way. “What if there really is a child in danger? What if it’s a child we know?”

“Buck,” Maddie said softly, running a soothing hand down Buck’s arm, the familiar sensation of her magic making Buck sigh with relief. “You’re overthinking this. Everyone gets a little crazy, this week – especially banshees, who are a bit crazy to start with. Take a deep breath and calm down. Okay?”

Buck closed his eyes, counting back from ten, Maddie’s magic still wrapping itself around him as he stood, trying to calm down, the same way it had always done when they were younger, familiar and familial. “I just – I don’t want to have ignored a warning that might have saved a kids life.”

Maddie gave him a reassuring look. “Well, knowing you, you’ll be extra alert until you feel like danger has passed,” she said knowingly. “And I’ll listen to what’s coming up on the 911 lines. Okay? If there’s a kid in danger, we’ll help them.”

Buck gave her a grateful smile. “I hate banshee visions,” he grumbled, waving the sound barrier down as he flopped down onto Maddie’s couch.

“The future is so _boring_ if you’re working to complete a vision,” Maddie agreed, looking over her shoulder. “Howie? Is everything okay?” she called, winking at Buck.

“I just – I forgot why I went to the kitchen,” Chimney admitted with a confused look. “Did you ask me for something?”

“Just a glass of water, please, dear,” Maddie said sweetly, Buck barely managing to swallow his giggles. However much he’d prefer to live in a world where he could be honest about his magical abilities with the people he loved, it was always quite funny to mess with mortals – only ever in harmless ways, of course.

It was one of the few perks of a life that needed to be kept secret from the people you loved most in the world.

Buck was finding it hard to shake the bad feeling he’d carried since the incident with the banshee – but he tucked it away as best as he could, for Christopher’s sake. The kid was so excited to show Buck all his favourite Halloween movies, so Buck has plastered on his best smile and listened intently to Christopher’s stream of chatter throughout Hocus Pocus, even reading Christopher three stories, instead of his usual one (and a half, Buck wasn’t a monster) before bed.

“Are you staying here tonight?” Eddie asked, passing Buck a beer.

Buck nodded. “If you don’t mind,” he said, taking a sip of the beer. “Chris wants French toast for breakfast,” he explained.

“You’re too good to him, you know.”

“I don’t think it’s possible to be too good to Chris,” Buck countered. “God, that kids imagination – it’s amazing.”

“Right?” Eddie grinned, looking proud as punch. “I swear, he’s going to be an artist, or a writer, or something, one day. He gets that from uh – his mom,” he finished quietly, thumbing at the damp label on his beer bottle, gazed fixed on the tiled floor of the Diaz kitchen.

“It’s okay to miss her, you know,” Buck said gently, nudging a foot against Eddie’s. Buck would never understand the grief Eddie carried – not really. He couldn’t imagine how it must feel to lose the mother of your child, the woman you’d promised to spend a lifetime with, once upon a time. It was the kind of grief that was palatable to Buck, sometimes – on Eddie’s worst days, Buck’s magic could feel the pain his best friend carried with him.

Not everyone’s magic did that – but Buck’s always had. Some people had told him it made him too sensitive, that he’d never live up to his magical potential if he was guided by not only his own emotions, but other peoples, too, but Buck liked to think it made him a better witch, and a better friend.

“I know,” Eddie said after a few seconds of quietness. “I think sometimes I’m still trying to figure out how to live with the grief – because I loved her, right to the end, but I wasn’t in love with Shannon anymore. And I guess – I guess sometimes it feels disrespectful to her memory to say that out loud, that I mourn her more as the mother of my child and a friend, than I do as the woman I married. But the truth is, I didn’t love her that way anymore, and she didn’t love me that way. And I guess I’m trying to find my peace with that.”

Buck nodded. “I guess – you didn’t have closure,” he said thoughtfully, the sound of Eddie’s heart thundering in his chest sounding like it was being played via loudspeaker, Buck’s senses were so magically enhanced. “Because you never had the chance to just be friends, and co-parents.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed. “I think you’re right. I – I think that would have been the best version of me and Shannon, actually.”

Buck smiled. “Tell me your favourite thing about her – nothing to do with Chris, something about her,” he asked. He didn’t know all that much about Shannon, in all honesty – he hadn’t really been the permanent fixture in the Diaz household he was now, back then, when she was around, and Eddie only really spoke of her as Christopher’s mother.

Eddie laughed. “She, uh – she could whistle through her nose,” he snorted. “I don’t know how she found out she could do it, but she could properly whistle through her nose – and she would do it all the time. Usually at the most inappropriate times, actually, like during a test in high-school, or when we were having dinner with my parents. It always made me laugh, when she did it – that was one of my favourite things about her, she always knew how to make me laugh.”

Buck couldn’t help but listen intently as Eddie spoke, the natural changes in tone of his voice, the way his heart sped up, and slowed down, all of a sudden, contentment written across his best friends face as he clearly basked in a familiar memory of Shannon. Buck’s magic felt settled, as he watched, appreciative of the calmness that washed over Eddie as he spoke.

Buck liked people – he liked watching them, loving them, listening to them, and Eddie was no different. “She sounds like she was a lot of fun,” he said, voice soft.

Eddie smiled. “She was,” he confirmed. “She’d have liked you a lot, you know – you’d appreciate her terrible sense of humour, seeing as yours is _somehow_ worse.”

Buck feigned offence. “I have a brilliant sense of humour!”

Eddie grinned, the expression lighting up his face as he leaned in a little closer to Buck – whether that was consciously, or unconsciously, Buck wasn’t so sure. “Christopher is the only person who thinks you’re funny.”

“Oh, you’re asking for it now Diaz.”

“Am I? You’re all talk, if you ask me.”

Buck raised an eyebrow, and before Eddie could escape, he had his arms wrapped around his best friend’s waist, searching out every ticklish spot he knew Eddie had. That had been one of the more joyful discoveries of Buck’s life – that Eddie was so ticklish. Christopher was a ticklish kid, and Buck had always used that to his advantage, until Christopher had spilled the beans one day that Eddie was even more ticklish, and, well –

Could you blame Buck for wanting to hear more of that helpless, hiccupping laugh that was escaping Eddie’s mouth, there and then, his best friend laughing too hard to wriggle out of Buck’s grasp.

“Buck! You’re going to w-wake Christopher,” Eddie honest to God giggled.

“You’re the one laughing,” Buck pointed out, grinning as a brush of his fingers over Eddie’s ribcage earned him a ridiculous snort.

“Buck, seriously!” 

“You know what you have to do.”

Eddie glared at him. “No.”

“Then I’m going to keep tickling you,” Buck grinned wickedly, hands sneaking under Eddie’s t-shirt and fingers skimming Eddie’s waist.

“Fine – fine!” Eddie giggled, the sound so wonderful Buck wished he could bottle it and listen to it on a loop forever. “You’re a very funny person, Buck.”

Buck grinned, relenting; his smile settled on his face as he reached for his beer, taking a sip. Times like this, when he was just hanging out with Eddie, he forgot about how sick the extra magic was making him feel, forgot about everything going on and going wrong in his life. The Diaz household was his happy place.

Eddie nudged Buck’s hip. “Are you staying over?” he asked, the question not really a question, Buck realised – more Eddie wanting confirmation of what was an unspoken agreement between the both of them. Buck always stayed – especially on a Friday night like this, when the whole of Saturday stretching in front of the three of them.

Buck loved weekends with his Diaz boys.

“Yeah,” Buck sighed happily, leaning into Eddie’s side. “I’m staying.”

(He’d stay forever, if he could.)

Buck woke, drenched in a cold sweat, and all too aware something was very, very wrong. Sitting up so quickly his head started to spin, Buck realised he could taste magic in the air, the taste coppery and acrid and wrong.

So very wrong.

Stumbling to his feet, Buck headed down the hallway, his mind focused on one thing. Christopher, Christopher, Christopher. He had to make sure Christopher was okay – and then he could check on Eddie, but Eddie would want him to check on Christopher first.

The taste got worse, as Buck stumbled down the hallway, the handle of Christopher’s door burning into Buck’s hand as he threw it open, his worst nightmare staring him in the face as he saw a fairy standing in Christopher’s room, a wicked grin on their face as they held tightly to the little boy, Christopher looking dazed and confused.

“Put him down,” Buck tried his best to sound authoritative, even in the midst of his panic. “He’s a mortal child. Put him down.”

“Oh, I know he’s a mortal,” the fairy hummed, a sharp finger tugging on Christopher’s chin. “He means a lot to you, too.”

“What do you want?” Buck asked. “Money – power? I can give you both,” he said. “I’ll let you feed off my magic. Just let him go.”

The fairy hummed again, smirking at Buck. “No,” they said decisively. “I don’t think I will.”

“What do you want?” Buck repeated.

The fairy grinned. “Leverage,” they said, and before Buck could do anything, they were gone – taking Christopher with them.

Buck –

Buck was pretty sure he was having a panic attack. Leverage? What – what would a fairy need a mortal child for leverage for? Forcing himself to take a breath, Buck ran for the living room, trying to find his phone, dialling Maddie’s number with shaking hands.

“Maddie? Maddie, I need you to come to Eddie’s house,” he rambled as soon as she answered. “The child – it’s Christopher. They’ve taken Christopher.”

Buck wasn’t sure if it was five seconds or five minutes, but Maddie was letting herself into Eddie’s house long before Buck had managed to calm himself down, looking concerned as she let the front door swing shut behind her.

“Who?” Maddie demanded.

“A fairy,” Buck said. “I didn’t recognise them.”

“Did you touch anything in his room?” 

Buck shook his head.

Maddie nodded, heading down the hallway, Buck helpless to do anything except follow her, Maddie’s power – and worry – making the air crackle around them. She stopped in the doorway of Christopher’s room, sighing.

“Who did you piss off, Buck?” she sighed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s the Old Ones,” Maddie said, guiding Buck’s hand to the doorframe. “Touch it. Can’t you feel it?”

Buck felt sick as the realisation – and the lingering magic – washed over him, that copper taste back at the back of his throat.

“Buck – Maddie? What’s going on?” a confused, sleep deprived looking Eddie asked. “Where – where is Christopher?”

Before Buck could do anything, Maddie froze Eddie in place. “Think, Buck,” she said warningly. “Think, before you do anything stupid. Christopher needs you to find him.”

“I can’t lie to him about his son,” Buck shook his head, eyes welling with tears as he looked at Eddie, his best friends face frozen in a terrified expression. “I can’t, Maddie. I have to tell him.”

“You’ll die,” Maddie reminded. “You’ll _die_ , Evan.”

“I know! I know that Maddie, but – you can help him,” Buck felt wild with his fear. “You can call in the Council and help him. I just – I need to be able to say enough for him to understand before I…”

“Before you choke to death? Buck – you cannot do this,” Maddie shook her head, brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what on Earth they could do.

“What other choice have I got?”

Maddie’s eyes widened, as though she’d just had a revelation. “You love Eddie,” she said. “What if – what if we could fool magic into thinking that wasn’t just platonic love?” she suggested. “Do a ring ceremony. Then he can know everything – and he can help us.”

(Buck wouldn’t need to fool anyone – his love for Eddie, even if it wasn’t reciprocated, was real and it was far from platonic.)

“Do you really think that’ll work?” Buck asked.

“It’s worth a try,” Maddie said. “I’ve seen ring ceremonies a dozen times. I can do one,” she said, glancing around Christopher’s room. “We just need rings,” she said, fingers skimming over the top of Christopher’s dresser, picking up a pen, brow furrowed as she manipulated the plastic into two rings, the blue material bright against her skin.

“How the hell do I get Eddie to agree to basically marry me at three am while his son is missing?”

“Get creative!” Maddie hissed. “We don’t exactly have a lot of time here, Evan.”

Buck sighed, nodding. “Okay, yeah – okay,” he said, unfreezing Eddie. “Eddie – I promise, I will explain everything, but I need to you trust me.”

“Buck,” Eddie’s eyes were wild. “Where the hell is Christopher?”

“Eddie,” Buck grabbed his best friend by the shoulders. “I am asking you to trust me – just for a few minutes. Then I can tell you everything.”

It was a testament to how much Eddie did trust him that he nodded, his heart beating so loudly that surely even Maddie could hear it.

“I know I’m asking for a lot,” Buck said, manoeuvring Eddie so he was standing, facing westwards. “But I need you to just go along with this, however crazy it might seem. Because it’s going to make sense.”

“What – what the hell is going on, Buck?”

“Here,” Maddie interrupted, standing between them, holding out an open palm. “Buck – Evan Buckley,” she began. “This ring is a symbol of your love for – Eddie,” she said. "And this ring ties you both together. Do you trust him to keep your secrets?” she asked, rushing through a half-assed version of a traditional magical ring ceremony.

“I do,” Buck confirmed, slipping the ring on Eddie’s shaking hand. “And I’ll suffer the consequences if he doesn’t keep the secret.”

“Buck – what’s Eddie’s full name?” Maddie asked urgently.

“Edmundo,” Eddie spoke, sounding more confused than ever. “It’s Edmundo.”

“Edmundo Diaz,” Maddie tried to give him a reassuring smile. “This ring ties you together for better or worse. Can you keep a secret for the sake of Buck’s safety?” she asked.

Eddie nodded. “Uh – yeah, I can.”

“You need to put the ring on me,” Buck encouraged softly, Eddie nodding and fumbling to shove the plastic ring on Buck’s finger. It’s not as though Buck had ever been through a ring ceremony before – but he expected to feel something, to feel as though something had changed. But he felt the same. “Maddie?” he asked. “Did it work?”

Maddie looked helpless. “I don’t know.”

Buck took a deep breath. “Okay,” he said. “Eddie? Whatever happens in the next few minutes, Maddie will help you get Christopher back,” he reassured, needing his best friend to know that – just in case it didn’t work. “Eddie – I’m a witch.”

Eddie’s laugh was hysterical as it bubbled out of his throat. “What? I’m – I’m on drugs, right?” he looked around the room. “If this is a prank, its not a funny one, Buck.”

“Eddie, I’m serious,” Buck said, more confident now he knew – or hoped, at least – it had worked. “I’m a witch. Maddie is a witch.”

“Witch like – fly on a broomstick and cast spells, that kind of witch?” Eddie looked at him, his disbelief clear. “Did you hit your head, Buck?”

Maddie sighed. “Show him, Buck,” she encouraged.

Buck gave his best friend a reassuring smile before he muttered under his breath, Christopher’s toys coming to life almost comically, a bear Buck knew Eddie had bought him after a camping trip last summer looking at Eddie with wide eyes, a stuffed rabbit that usually lived on top of Christopher’s bookshelf bouncing to the floor, looking at Eddie inquisitively.

“ _Oh_ ,” Eddie said, and promptly passed out, crumpling into Buck’s arms.

“I feel like you could have eased him into it a bit more,” Maddie said, rubbing a hand across her forehead.

“I’m sorry, did you miss the part where his son got kidnapped by a fairy? Hence the sense of urgency? I’d have eased him into it if there wasn’t quite a lot on the line here!” Buck hissed, lifting his still passed out best friend up, throwing Eddie over his shoulder. “I cannot believe that stupid banshee was right.”

“Is she stupid if she was right?” Maddie inquired, waiting for Buck to settle Eddie on the couch before she pressed the back of her hand to his forehead, humming under her breath as she slowly brought him back to consciousness. Maddie had always been better at healing magic than Buck was.

“What - what the fuck?” Eddie sat ramrod straight, looking panicked. “Buck – I had the weirdest dream.”

“It wasn’t a dream,” Buck shook his head, keeping his voice soft. “You passed out. But it wasn’t a dream.”

“You’re really a witch?” Eddie asked, glancing between the two of them. “Both of you?”

Buck nodded. “We’re witches,” he confirmed. “Always have been. But – we’re not allowed to tell mortals,” he said, by way of explanation. “What Maddie did, back in Christopher’s room – it’s a ring ceremony. It’s the only way you’re allow to tell someone – according to magical law.”

Eddie sounded hysterical. “Magical law?”

Buck nodded again. “There’s a lot I want to tell you,” he said. “But that can wait, Eddie. Christopher – he’s been kidnapped.”

“What? We need to call the police – Buck, why haven’t you called the police?”

“Mortal police can’t help us, Eddie,” Buck tried to reassure his panicked best friend. “Because Christopher’s been kidnapped by a magical cult.”

Eddie slumped in Buck’s grip. “This can’t be happening.”

“I know this is a lot,” Buck said. “But – and not to brag – Maddie and I are pretty brilliant witches,” he said. “So we’re going to find Christopher. I promise.”

“Eddie,” Maddie’s voice was gentle. “I know this is terrifying, and you probably feel really overwhelmed – but Buck is the greatest witch I’ve ever known, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother. We’re going to find Christopher.”

Eddie looked like he wanted to cry. “I – he’s going to be so scared, Buck.”

Buck felt like his heart was being ripped in two. “Eddie,” he swallowed thickly. “I’m not going to pretend that the people who’ve taken him are the good guys – but they can’t hurt him.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Eddie shook his head.

“I do.”

Maddie gave him a wide-eyed look, realisation dawning on his sister. “Buck – you didn’t.”

Buck ignored his sister. “After the tsunami, I put a charm on Christopher,” he admitted. “I didn’t want his closeness to me to put him at risk. Magic can’t hurt him, Eddie, because he carries some of my magic with him.”

Eddie looked between them. “Are you not supposed to do that?” he looked confused.

“No,” Maddie answered for Buck. “Not unless it’s your own child.”

Eddie looked confused again. “He is your kid,” he said softly, looking at Buck. “As much as he’s mine. He’s your kid, Buck.”

If it wasn’t such a life or death situation, hearing those words from his best friend might have completely broken Buck – in the best way, broken him open and reshaped him and made him whole again. But he couldn’t think about it, now – not when they needed to find Christopher.

“Magical law is based on bloodline,” Buck explained. “I don’t agree with it – but they won’t consider Christopher my kid.”

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Buck glanced at Maddie. “You called for help?” he raised an eyebrow, his sister nodding. “Okay,” he sighed, glancing toward the door, letting it swing open to reveal –

“Athena?”

Athena Grant stood at Eddie’s front door, hands on hips. “Evan Buckley,” she sighed. “Of all the ways I had hoped we’d get to mutually share our secrets; this wasn’t it.”

Everything – everything, and Buck really meant _everything_ – made sense now. The way Athena had never questioned how Buck was able to walk out of the most impossible situations. The way Bobby never had, either.

She was magical.

“I’m a werewolf,” she said, by way of explanation.

“Of course,” Buck couldn’t help but laugh. “Particularly suited to investigative work. Right?”

“Right,” Athena confirmed, raising an eyebrow. “Was a ring ceremony such a good idea?”

“I had to find a way to tell him,” Buck shrugged.

“Uh – could someone please fill me in?” Eddie asked in a tiny voice.

“Magical law enforcement exists within the structures of mortal law enforcement,” Athena explained. “I protect mortals, I’m a normal police officer – but when it’s needed, I step in to investigate magical crimes. It’s one of the ways I make sure our secrets get kept.”

“I think I’m having a stroke,” Eddie mumbled.

“There’s more to the world than most mortals ever get to realise,” Athena said simply. “What happened, Buck?”

Buck sighed. “That weird call we had the other day – it was a magical one,” he said, glancing at Eddie. “It’s not like – an official job. But I do my best to cover up magic at fire and rescue scenes until someone like Athena can get there.”

“The basement,” realisation dawned on Eddie.

Buck nodded. “There was a group of magical beings in the basement – they’d tried to open a hell portal,” he explained to Athena. “It didn’t work, and they started a fire instead.”

Athena gave him a pointed look. “And you didn’t call it in?”

“They just seemed like a group of idiots,” Buck sighed, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. “I went back later, after my shift, and they had cleaned it up – I didn’t think it was a big deal. Just, people going crazy around Halloween,” he looked at Eddie, conscious of how confused his best friend must have been. “Magic gets harder to control around Halloween,” he explained. “It makes us all a little crazy.”

“Everything about this is crazy,” Eddie pointed out.

Buck swallowed a laugh. “True,” he said. “But – this time of year, the veil that separates the magical world from the mortal world is at its thinnest, and weird things happen. I figured they were just stoned off excess magic – if I had realised, Athena…”

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“There was a banshee there,” Buck continued. “A young one – really young. She had a vision, while we were in the basement – she told me to protect the child. I didn’t know what it meant – but she must have meant Christopher.”

Athena sighed. “Old Ones,” she said simply. She must have smelled it the second she walked into the Diaz household.

“Who?” Eddie asked, looking infuriated as no one replied. “If they have my son, I deserve to know who they are. Who – or what – are Old Ones?”

Buck really didn’t want to have to be the one to say it. “Not everyone believes that keeping the magical world secret from mortals it the best way forward,” he said. “There’s people – there’s people who believe that the old ways were the best ones.”

“What are the old ways?”

“The Old Ones want us to go back to a time where mortals feared magical beings,” Maddie interjected. “To return to a time where mortals worshiped us and lived under our control. But they’ve never had the numbers needed to overthrow the rest of us who don’t believe that – so they try and open hell portals and release the demons that have been trapped there over time.”

“So they’re a magical cult who want to let all the other magical bad guys out of what – magical _prison_?” Eddie raised an eyebrow.

It wasn’t a bad summary.

“Yeah,” Buck sighed. “Essentially.”

“So a bunch of genocidal maniacs have my son? Great.”

Buck wanted to disappear as Maddie explained what he’d done to Athena. “Buck charmed Christopher,” Maddie explained. “So they can’t hurt him.”

“Oh, Buck,” Athena sighed. “You know – “

“I know,” Buck interrupted. He knew – but he didn’t want Eddie to know. Eddie never needed to know, if you asked him. “Look – it’s me they want anyway.”

“You?” Eddie looked worried.

“Buck is using the royal ‘me’ here,” Athena said. “If they want to open a hell portal, they need a powerful witch – and Buck and Maddie here, are two very powerful witches. Two very powerful witches without a coven – which means their power is completely untethered.”

Buck felt like he’d just let his favourite teacher down, Athena's disappointment palpable. “So we give them what they want,” he said. “We give them me – and once Christopher is clear, you come and get me.”

Maddie looked furious, freezing Eddie in place. “You know as well as I do that if we do an exchange, you won’t walk out of there alive, Buck,” she practically yelled.

“But Christopher will,” Buck countered, the choice easy. “So you get everyone clear – and I go nuclear, Maddie. Take everyone with me.”

“Buck…” Athena’s voice was gentle.

“Athena, you know as well as I do that this is the quickest – and safest – way to get Christopher back,” Buck said, looking at a still frozen Eddie. “But we’re not telling Eddie.”

“Buck – “

“We’re not telling him.”

“Doesn’t he deserve the chance to say goodbye to you?” Athena tried.

Buck swallowed thickly. “I don’t want him to feel guilty about it,” he said. “So – when its done, you wipe his memory, and make him believe I died in a freak car accident or something.”

“Evan,” Maddie looked as though she was about to cry.

Buck gave her a watery smile. “I know you’ll do it for me, Maddie,” he said simply, unfreezing Eddie – conversation over. “The charm I put on Christopher – do you think we can use it as a beacon?” he asked. “As a way to track Christopher?”

“I’m not sure,” Athena admitted. “But I know the person to ask.”

Some fairies were extraordinarily good with computers – that had been one of the more interesting developments of the turn of the century. Fae magic was easily adapted to modern human technology, and so it meant that people like Josh could do very clever things with iPads and magic at three in the morning. 

“Stop fidgeting,” Josh scolded, flicking Buck’s nose impatiently as he tried to tweak the coding on his iPad.

“It tickles!” Buck tried to defend himself. Fairy magic _always_ tickled.

Eddie, to his credit, was quietly sitting in the corner, looking utterly baffled but going along with it, all the same. Buck couldn’t imagine what was going through his head, there and then – but he could tell that Eddie’s heart was beating furiously and his anxiety was leaving a bitter taste hanging in the air.

“Witches,” Josh rolled his eyes, looking at Athena for her agreement.

“Excuse me, I’m a witch, and I’m your best friend,” Maddie tried to lighten the mood with a joke.

“Yes,” Josh sighed. “That doesn’t make you any less annoying, though. Buck, I swear, if you move one more time, I will turn you into an ice pop.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me,” Josh said, and his face looked so serious that Buck decided it was probably best not to test the other man’s patience, given they’d woken him up at three am to hotwire an iPad into a magical tracking device.

Closing his eyes, Buck tried his best to keep still, wincing as he felt the iPad connect to his magic.

“Is it hurting you, Buck?” Eddie’s voice was quiet and concerned.

Buck didn’t really trust himself to speak.

“Witches don’t like technology,” Josh explained. “Fairy magic – it’s compatible,” he explained. “But witch magic, it doesn’t mesh very well.”

“It feels like someone trying to shove the wrong kind of plug into a socket,” Buck mumbled. “It doesn’t hurt. It’s just very annoying,” he lied, barely able to swallow a whine of pain.

“You can touch him,” Josh’s voice was gentle. “You’re mortal, Eddie, so it doesn’t matter – you can touch him.”

Buck kept his eyes squeezed shut as he felt Eddie tentatively take one of Buck’s hands in his own, Eddie’s skin warm against his clammy hands. Eddie was always warm – that was one of the things Buck had first noticed about him. He’d even mistaken him for a phoenix, those first few weeks – they were particularly suited to the firefighter profession – but no, it was all Eddie. He was just a warm person – Buck was realising more and more every day how true that was. Underneath his tough exterior, Eddie was warm, and funny, and kind, and just generally the best person Buck had ever met.

“Almost there, Buck,” Josh reassured.

It took a final, excruciating jolt of pain before the connection settled, and Buck squeezed Eddie’s hand back. “Thanks,” he said softly, opening his eyes so he could look at Eddie. Worry was written across every inch of Eddie’s face – worry for Christopher, most of all, but worry for Buck, too.

“Even when I didn’t know,” Eddie’s voice was quiet. “Even when I didn’t know, you were doing your best to protect Christopher.”

“I’d do anything for that kid,” Buck reassured, not willing to let go of Eddie’s hand just yet. “You know that.”

Eddie looked at him in a way that made Buck’s heart melt down into his sneakers – and if that wasn’t something to push to the back of his mind and never think about again.

Buck would like to think about it again – really, he would, but time wasn’t on his side this time. Buck had always thought he’d have all the time in the world – witches didn’t actually live much longer than humans, but a hundred years old seemed so far away, still, and Buck had been so sure he’d have time.

 _Time_ –

Time was the most precious magic in the world, if you asked him, and it was the one thing no one could control. That was what made it so precious, Buck supposed – he could make just about anything happen with the snap of his fingers and a few choice words, but he couldn’t give himself more time.

Buck wished he had more time.

“I’ve got something,” Josh declared triumphantly. “It’s a warehouse – on one of the only ley-lines in the city. The one close to Morningside Park."

(Buck really wished he had more time.) 

“Are you sure – are you sure you don’t want to tell him?” Josh looked at him earnestly as they headed for their cars, the other man keeping his iPad tucked safely under his arm.

“I’m sure.”

“Buck,” Josh sounded sympathetic. “He deserves to know. To choose – to get to say goodbye to you.”

Buck looked at Eddie, who Athena was bundling into the back of her patrol car, the older man looking sick with nerves. “No,” he said firmly. Eddie had already had to say goodbye to Shannon – and Buck would never compare himself to the literal mother of Eddie’s child, but Buck still wouldn’t put Eddie through saying goodbye like that again. “I’m making the choice for him.”

Josh’s brow was furrowed. “Do you have the right to?”

“Maybe not,” Buck shrugged. “But if I can save him from this, Josh, I will.”

Josh didn’t argue.

“Josh – will you take care of Maddie, for me?” Buck asked, his stomach churning. He didn’t want to leave his sister – not ever, but especially not now, right before she brought her little girl into the world. The niece Buck would never meet. “She – it’s not going to be good.”

Josh gave his elbow a sympathetic squeeze. “She wouldn’t be your sister if she wasn’t going to try burn the world down if she looses you,” he said. “I’ll take care of her, Buck. But – if you can think of another way, if you can pull a Buck and figure a way out of this, now is the time.”

 _Time_.

It was always about time.

“I’ll try,” Buck reassured, the lie tasting like sawdust as he headed for Athena’s patrol car, sliding in next to Eddie.

“Would you – would you know, if Christopher wasn’t okay?” Eddie asked softly, his eyes watery with tears as he looked at Buck.

Buck nodded. “I’d know,” he reassured. “I promise, he’s okay, Eddie.”

Eddie didn’t look reassured, but nodded, all the same. “He’s going to have so many questions for you,” he tried to joke. “A real life witch. He’s going to freak, you know that, right?”

Buck wanted to cry.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’ll be sure and show him all of my best tricks,” he said, because in an ideal world, that’s exactly what he would do – he’d sit with Christopher, the same way Maddie used to with him, and he’d conjure the stars and he’d show Christopher all the wonderful, magical things there was to see in the world, and he’d be happy – Buck would be so happy.

Maybe all it would ever be was a fantasy – but it was a fantasy that Buck could hold onto.

No one could take that from him, at least.

“So how is this going to work?” Eddie asked as they pulled up to the warehouse, looking jittery.

Buck swallowed thickly, looking at Athena briefly before he spoke. “I’ll go inside,” he said. “And send Christopher out.”

He couldn’t lie to Eddie – couldn’t pretend like he was going to come back from this one.

Eddie nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I just – I want this nightmare to be over,” he pleaded. “Get Christopher back, Buck.”

Buck couldn’t help himself – he reached out and hugged Eddie as tightly as he could, nodding. “I’ll get him,” he reassured, turning and heading for the warehouse, pausing to turn back to Maddie, who was barely holding it together.

“Buck.”

“Don’t burn the world down for me,” Buck asked, wiping at her tears. “Make something better of it. For me?”

“I’d rather do it with you,” Maddie replied softly.

“That’s the beauty of magic,” Buck said with a sad smile. “It can never really be destroyed, Maddie – you know that. I’m with you – always.”

“I love you,” Maddie said, and Buck knew, he knew without her telling him – he had always known the depth and magnificence of Maddie’s love for him. She had always more than made up for the ways their parents had been absent, drowning in their grief and leaving their kids to fend for themselves. Buck had never doubted Maddie’s love for him.

Her love had given him wings –

“I love you,” he replied firmly, turning and heading straight for the warehouse.

Her love had given him wings, and his life had been worthwhile, in the end – for all the people he’d helped, and the people he’d loved. Buck wouldn’t lie and pretend he didn’t have regrets, but as soon as he spotted Christopher, the regrets didn’t feel like they mattered as much.

He’d get Christopher back to his dad safely.

“Buck!” Christopher yelled, looking relieved.

“Christopher,” Buck breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s okay, I’m here – and your dad is right outside. You’re okay.”

“They’re magic, Buck!” Christopher said, almost in a stage whisper.

“I know,” Buck stopped a few metres in front of him. “I’m magic too, buddy – a witch.”

“You found us quickly, witch,” Buck looked left to see a goblin standing, watching him carefully. “We thought you’d bring reinforcements.”

“No reinforcements needed,” Buck said. “Let him go, and you can have what you want.”

“That simple?” the goblin seemed unconvinced.

“That simple,” Buck confirmed. “All I care about is him.”

“Who am I to refuse a good deal?” the goblin grinned wickedly. “Let the child go.”

Buck’s heart thundered in his chest as he watched Christopher be freed from his magical restraints, one of the fairies handing him back his crutches, Christopher making his way toward Buck on unsteady legs. He’d been sitting down for too long, Buck realised, the little boy looking tired.

“Hi, buddy,” Buck crouched down, checking Christopher over. “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you, right?”

Christopher shook his head. “I knew you’d come and find me,” he reassured. “Can we go, now?”

Buck nodded. “I just need to talk to these guys for a quick second,” he said. “Can you promise me something, Chris? Will you take good care of your dad for me?”

Christopher looked worried. “Did something happen to him?”

“No – no, nothing like that,” Buck reassured, trying to swallow his tears. “But I won’t always be around – and I want to make sure my Diaz boys are okay. So, do you promise me?”

Christopher nodded. “I promise, Buck.”

“Good boy,” Buck pressed a kiss to Christopher’s forehead. “Christopher, I need you to walk out those doors – and don’t look back, not for a second. Okay? Just keep walking until you see your dad.”

“And you’ll be right behind me?” Christopher looked at Buck, curious - and worried.

“I’ll always be with you,” Buck reassured. “Now – go, Chris, please.”

Buck didn’t look away until he was sure Christopher had left the warehouse, turning to face the people who’d kidnapped his – his Christopher.

The goblin looked gleeful. “You’re angry,” he said. “This will be such fun.”

Buck knew how terrifying he could make himself look, revelling in the terrified looks that met him as he turned back to the gathered group, his eyes glowing an unnatural blue as he let go of every way he controlled his magic, letting the power start to consume him. “For _me_. It’s going to be fun for me.”

Eddie looked at Maddie and Athena, confused. “Why are you acting like Buck isn’t going to come back?” he asked.

Maddie wiped at her eyes. “Because he’s not, Eddie,” she said, one hand resting protectively on her stomach. “He’s going to exchange himself for Christopher. They – they want power, and Buck is raw power.”

Eddie felt like he was going to be sick. It couldn’t – it couldn’t be true. It couldn’t possibly be true. Buck – Buck would have said goodbye. “We have to stop him,” he said, feeling wild with the weight of the grief that had just slammed into his chest. “Maddie, you have to stop him.”

“There’s no other way to save Christopher,” Maddie’s voice was thick with tears.

“There has to be another way – you’re all fucking _magic_ , for crying out loud. How is there not another way?”

“Daddy?”

Eddie turned to see Christopher heading for them, still in his pyjamas and looking exhausting. “Oh, Chris – Chris, sweetheart, it’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here,” he scooped Christopher up, squeezing his son as tightly as he could. “You’re okay.”

Before Christopher could say anything, the warehouse lit up a violent blue colour, and all of a sudden Maddie was moving – yelling, saying something in a language Eddie didn’t recognise him, a literal force-field forming around them, purple and pulsating and wrapping around them, Maddie’s eyes that same startlingly purple colour.

Christopher clung to him a bit tighter, and Eddie was helpless to do anything but watch as the blue light crashed around them, destroying everything outside of Maddie’s protection.

There –

There was no way Buck had survived that, was there?

Eddie felt grief claw at his throat as he watched the warehouse reduce to rubble, Maddie sobbing as she slowly lowered the force-field, the quiet of the night unnerving. “We – we have to find him,” Eddie looked at the rest of the group. “We have to find him.”

“Eddie…” Josh cut himself off, muttering something before he continued, Christopher almost instantly falling asleep in Eddie’s arms as a result. “There won’t be anything to find. Buck basically made himself a nuclear weapon.”

“No,” Eddie shook his head. “No – I’d know, if he was dead, I’d know. I always know when he’s hurt and I’d know if he was gone.”

Maddie gave a shocked gasp. “Eddie’s right,” she sounded confused, reaching out to briefly touch Christopher. “I think Eddie’s right – Josh, check your iPad. I can still feel the charm Buck put on Christopher, and if – if he was really dead, it would be gone.”

“The energy is still there,” Josh confirmed, sounding surprised. “The energy is still there.”

Eddie couldn’t breathe. “We – Athena, can you take Christopher?” he barely waited for an answer before he handed his sleeping son off to Athena, bolting for the rubble. He didn’t really have a plan – he didn’t have a tool, or magical goddamn powers, but he was going to find Buck. He had to find Buck – his stupid, self-sacrificing best friend.

“Eddie,” Maddie sounded terrifyingly authoritative. “Take a breather. I’ll find him.”

Eddie paused his scrabbling, hands already scraped and bleeding from the concrete he was trying to move.

“Left,” Maddie’s eyes flew open. “On the left, a few metres from Eddie. Help me move this rubble, Josh.”

Eddie wasn’t good at feeling helpless – he was rarely helpless in situations like this, always equipped with a firetrucks worth of tools to move rubble and save lives – but right now he was helpless to do anything except watch Maddie and Josh try and move half a fucking warehouse off his best friend.

Off the love of his life. 

He couldn’t stop himself from moving as he spotted a tuft of curly blond hair underneath the rapidly moving concrete. “Buck?” he called out helplessly, sneakers barely getting a grip on the rubble as he rushed to his best friend’s side. Buck was unconscious, his head bleeding profusely. Trying his best to think like a medic, Eddie scrambled to find a pulse, unable to stop his tears as he felt one – weak, but still there. “He’s alive – he’s alive Maddie.”

Maddie’s fingers were sparking purple as she tried to stop the bleeding. “It’s – it’s not enough,” she sounded frustrated. “Fuck. This is why we’re supposed to have a coven.”

“What – what’s wrong?” Eddie couldn’t hide his panic.

“I’m not strong enough, Eddie,” Maddie practically sobbed. “He needs magic - more magic than I've got to give."

Eddie wasn’t magic – hell, he’d only known magic existed for a couple of hours – but he loved Buck. He loved Buck more than he had ever loved anyone – besides his son – and if Eddie believed in anything, he wanted to believe in love.

Brushing Buck’s matted, bloody hair back off of his face, Eddie whispered softly. “Buck?” he said gently. “Buck? Please – please come back to me,” he pleaded, gentle hands cupping Buck’s face. “Don’t leave me like this. Okay? Please.”

“I’ve called a local coven,” Athena’s voice sounded like it was a million miles away. “Bobby is on his way with a witch doctor. He just needs to hold on long enough.”

“Did you hear that?” Eddie said softly, willing Buck’s eyes to open. “Help is on the way, Buck. You’re going to be okay.”

Eddie wasn’t actually sure of that – he wasn’t sure of anything, anymore, because his best friend was a witch, and his son had just been kidnapped by a magical cult, and Josh was a literal fairy and Athena was a werewolf and he’d definitely believe you if you told him the sky was pink, not blue, but he was sure of one thing.

Buck wasn’t going to give up on them without a fight.

Swallowing his tears, Eddie leaned in to press a soft kiss to the corner of Buck’s mouth. “Come on, Buck, wake up so I can do that for real.”

(Maddie Buckley had felt her brother’s presence in her life from the moment he was born – bright and powerful and so, so wonderful, Buck’s magic imprinted on hers in a way she’d never fully understood. She’d felt his presence, his brilliance, every day of her life, and it had always been a comforting thrum of love at the back of her mind, even during her worst days, days when Buck was hundreds of miles away and she was trapped in a house with a man who'd only ever used his power against her.

She could feel him fading away, now.

“Come on, Buck,” Maddie pleaded, trying to force her own magic into Buck’s body. “Not like this. Not now.”)

(Josh had always wanted to be a healer – but his magic hadn’t grown and formed that way. He’d always wished it had – that he could heal hurt with a simple touch – and he’d never wished for it more than he did now as he watched Buck’s body cling to life, unable to do anything at all to help.)

(Athena sensed her husband miles before he actually got there, witch-doctor in tow as he broke every speed limit in Los Angeles to get to Buck. She’d known from the moment she met Buck that he was a witch – and she’d been waiting, for him to tell her, to realise for himself what Athena was so skilled at hiding, Buck young and reckless enough to not notice, those first few years - Athena had the benefit of a lifetime of training behind her, and Buck was a brilliant young witch who still believed he could change the world for the better.

Athena had always admired that about him. 

Bobby hadn’t known until they’d gotten married – and when she’d told him of her suspicions of Buck’s true nature, Bobby hadn’t been surprised. Her mortal husband wasn’t easily surprised – not anymore. But she hated the surprise and concern on Bobby’s face as he eased a sleeping Christopher out of her arms, rocking the little boy gently in his arms as he tried to distract himself. Bobby's EMT training was useless, here - Buck's injuries weren't ones that could be healed by modern medicine. 

Athena sighed, resting a hand on her husband's lower back. “Now might be a good time to pray.”)

Buck had wondered, what dying would feel like – if it would hurt, if he’d realise what was going on at all. It didn’t hurt, he noted – his body felt pleasantly warm and comfortable, a stark contrast to how it had felt when his magic had started to rip him apart from the inside.

God sounded a lot like Eddie, which was – well, something Buck assumed he’d have eternity to unpack with whoever he made friends with now he was in the afterlife.

“Buck,” God-Eddie said. “Come on – you have to wake up.”

“No, don’t wanna,” Buck mumbled. “’S nice here.”

“Buck? Buck – come on, wake up!” God sounded a lot like Maddie, now.

“Buck? Evan?”

Buck forced his eyes to open, quickly realising he wasn’t actually all that dead – which was a surprise, all things considered. He’d essentially just blown himself up; Buck hadn’t been too confident in his odds of surviving that.

“I’m Violet,” an unfamiliar voice greeted. “Witch-doctor,” they continued by way of explanation. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been hit by a truck,” Buck admitted with a grimace, Maddie’s face streaked with tears. “Hi, Maddie.”

“Don’t hi Maddie me!” Maddie huffed. “You _died_ , Evan Buckley.”

Buck weakly tried to do some jazz hands. “And I came back to life. Like a hotter, whiter Jesus.”

Josh laughed at his joke, at least.

“Is Christopher okay?” Buck asked.

“Thanks to you,” Eddie’s voice was shaking, so quiet that Buck could barely hear him.

“That’s all that matters,” Buck hummed, struggling into a sitting position. Whatever the witch doctor had given him was starting to work, his body feeling like it was starting to work again.

“No, it’s not,” Eddie practically growled. “You matter, Buck. How could you do that to me?”

“Eds,” Buck sighed. “If I’d told you the truth, you wouldn’t have let me do it.”

“Maybe not,” Eddie huffed. “But you don’t get to lie to me like that, Buck.”

Buck winced. “I didn’t lie,” he said. “I just sort of – left out some of the details.”

“Buck, I’m serious,” Eddie ran a hand through Buck’s hair. “You don’t – you don’t get to decide for me, you don’t get to take my chance to say goodbye away. Not today – not ever. Okay? Because – because if you hadn’t survived, Buck, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.”

And Buck – he was so sure that Eddie was going to kiss him, he was so sure, but before Eddie’s glorious mouth could touch his own, he was being flung into the air, magical handcuffs wrapping around his wrists.

“Evan Buckley,” the voice boomed. “You have been charged with treason, with your trial set to begin in fifteen seconds. Do you wish to find a lawyer?”

Buck rolled his eyes. “I’ll defend myself, thanks,” he called out, swinging his feet as he hung mid-air, waiting for the Council to arrive. He’d been on trial with the Council once – but he’d only been fifteen, so there hadn’t been any of the handcuffs or magical floating prison. Witches weren’t the best at the whole civil rights thing, sometimes, but they were better to kids.

Once you’d had your witching hour, you were free game.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this one, Mr Buckley,” Sarah Martin, of all fucking Council members, arrived first. Buck might have slept with her, one all Hallows Eve, and then promptly never called her again. She wasn’t exactly his biggest fan.

“I’ll make it as entertaining as I can,” Buck joked, watching as the rest of the Council arrived. “Can we make it quick? I’m starving.”

“Evan Buckley,” another council member spoke. “For the crime of an unauthorised charm on a mortal child, how do you plead?”

“Well,” Buck sighed. “I can’t really pretend as though I didn’t do that, can I?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “We’d like to hear the why, Buck.”

“Oh, easy,” Buck shrugged as best he could, given the magical handcuffs situation. “Christopher is the most important person in my life, and I wanted to protect him – so I cast a protection charm on him.”

“Without the consent of his father?”

“Well, his father is a mortal,” Buck inclined his head slightly. “So, legally, I couldn’t ask his permission. Eddie? Do you give me your permission to cast a charm on Christopher to keep him safe?”

Eddie looked utterly, adorably, baffled, bless him. “Uh – yes.”

“See? Consent gotten,” Buck shrugged. “Can we all go home now?”

“No,” another council member said firmly. “The charm cast on one Christopher Diaz is one only to be used on a witches child. He is not your child – nor is he a witch. For this crime, Mr Buckley, you will be stripped of your powers.”

Buck closed his eyes.

Yeah –

He’d expected that one.

He’d expected it, but it didn’t make hearing the words any easier. His magical powers were a part of who he was – and now he’d have to spend the rest of his life living feeling like there was limb missing, and never understanding why, exactly.

“This is bullshit.”

Buck’s eyes flew open as Eddie spoke, his best friend looking furious. “Eddie…”

“No, this is bullshit,” Eddie said again, more forcefully this time – and Buck filed the image of the man he loved standing up to the Council away to enjoy at a later, slightly more appropriate moment. “Christopher is his son, as much as he is mine.”

The Council looked confused.

“According to records – Christopher is your biological child,” Sarah said, glancing at her phone. “He couldn’t possibly be Buck’s.”

Eddie’s laugh was hysterical. “Do you really think family is only biology?” he asked. “Buck – he shows up every damn day for my kid. He makes him school lunches and does his homework with him and he reads him stories at night and he’s there every single fucking day, and that’s what being a parent is. Not biology – not genetics. Buck is Christopher’s father – you’re wrong. You’re punishing him for protecting his kid.”

Buck had wanted to hear those words for so long, that now, finally hearing them, make him feel like he was spinning out of orbit. Eddie – Eddie considered Buck Christopher’s other parent? Really? He did?

“Buck – he nearly died, five minutes ago, saving my sons life, and now you’re putting him on trial? For what? Giving a shit?” Eddie continued, clearly on a roll now.

“It’s the law, Mr Diaz.”

“Then fuck the law!” Eddie yelled. “Tear it up – write a new one!”

Sarah glanced at Buck, and then back at the Council. “There’s actually nothing that says we can’t do that,” she admitted.

“Then do it!” Eddie said. “He was protecting his kid. You can’t take his powers away for that.”

Sarah sighed. “It does seem wrong,” she said. “Given Mr Buckley did also take out a sleeper cell of Old Ones in the process.”

“What about the implications of changing the law?”

Buck swallowed a smile as Sarah glanced up at him, her expression giving her answer away. “If we change the law,” she sighed. “We make the world a better place. Isn’t that why we exist?” she questioned the rest of the gathered Council members.

“It’s true,” someone hummed. “We would.”

“Everyone likes when we update the laws, you know,” another said. “It’d be a good announcement at the All Hallows ball.”

“But what about the crime of telling a mortal?”

“We did a ring ceremony,” Buck and Maddie said in unison.

Sarah shrugged. “That’s it, then,” she said, waving the handcuffs away, setting Buck back down on the ground. “Evan Buckley, you’re cleared of your crimes. Have a nice evening.”

And as quickly as they arrived, they were gone, a clean-up team arriving to strip the magical residue from the scene.

“Is anything else insane about to happen?” Eddie sighed, standing a few metres from Buck, hands on his hips.

“I think you’re safe for now,” Buck laughed, rubbing at his wrists.

“Good,” Eddie hummed, and before Buck could gather what was left of his own thoughts, Eddie was slamming into him full-force, kissing him with everything he had. Buck felt like the wind had been knocked right out of him, as Eddie kissed him, his best friends hair on his waist, on his neck, in his hair. It took him a second to kiss Eddie back, Buck hooking his arms around Eddie’s waist and kissing him for all he was worth.

It felt –

Well, if you could forgive the cheesiness, it felt like magic.

“I love you,” Eddie said, breathless as they broke apart. “You stupid fucking idiot.”

“That’s rude,” Buck snorted, kissing Eddie again – because he could, now, apparently. “But I love you too.”

(Time – time was a funny one. It was the one thing Buck never felt like he had enough of, but there and then, standing amongst the ruins of a warehouse with the love of his life in his arms – Buck felt like time was stretching out in front of him, endless and forever and filled with more happiness than he knew how to handle.)

“He’s going to have so many questions tomorrow,” Eddie said softly, the two of them standing in Christopher’s doorway, dawn breaking as the kid peacefully slept on, blissfully unaware of everything that had happened. “Are you allowed to tell him?”

Buck inclined his head slightly, gesturing for Eddie to step into the hallway. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, actually,” he said. “The only time we’re allowed to tell a mortal about magic is if we marry them – that’s how Bobby knows. Otherwise, if I even tried to say the words ‘I’m a witch’ to you, I’d choke to death.”

“Jesus,” Eddie leaned against the wall. “How – how can you tell me about it all, then?”

“The ring ceremony Maddie did – we got magically married,” Buck explained. “Maddie thought we’d fooled magic into thinking our platonic love was marriage material, but, uh…” he trailed off, a flush rising in his cheeks. “It was never platonic for me.”

“Me neither,” Eddie reassured, reaching for Buck’s hand. “We’re magically married, then, huh? I figured you’d take me on a first date before you proposed, but I can’t say I mind the idea of being married to you.”

“Eddie,” Buck shook his head. “You should know – it’s a serious thing, a mortal marrying someone magic. If you, or Christopher ever let my secret slip, they’ll erase your memory, and they won’t just erase your memory of magic, they’ll erase every trace of me from your life. You have to keep this secret for the rest of your life, and I can’t ask that of you.”

“You can,” Eddie reassured, squeezing Buck’s hand lightly. “That’s what family does. We keep each other’s secrets – we keep each other safe. We’ll explain it to Chris, and he’ll understand, too.”

“It’s not too late – the Council can annul it, the marriage I mean.”

“So,” Eddie’s mouth quirked up in the beginnings of a grin. “You and I have been basically married for a long time, Evan Buckley. You co-parent my kid with me – and you make us dinner, and you live here, most of the time, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fantasied about playing house with you and getting married. I’m happy to make that fantasy a reality if you’re in. I’d rather this had happened not because you were getting my son back from a genocidal goblin – which I can’t believe is a sentence I’m saying, I feel like I’m on drugs – but I’m all in, either way.”

Laughter bubbled up in Buck’s chest as he nodded. “I’m all in, Eds.”

Eddie grinned. “You still owe me a human proposal and wedding,” he warned. “And I have just so many questions – like, so many – but right now, can we sleep a little? I feel like I’ve run a marathon and considering you’re the one who died and came back to life tonight, I think you need the sleep,” he paused, looking confused. “Do witches sleep?”

“You’re thinking of vampires,” Buck said gently.

“They’re real too?!” Eddie’s eyes were wide.

Buck laughed, nudging his – boyfriend, his boyfriend – toward his bedroom. “We can start Magic 101 in the morning,” he reassured.

Eddie’s yawn was ridiculously adorable. “I’m out if you tell me that Santa is real, Buck.”

Buck swallowed a reply about how of course Santa was real, Eddie, do you really think mortals thought that one up on their own? “Tomorrow,” he reassured, pressing a kiss to Eddie’s clothed shoulder. “I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”

(Because he had a tomorrow – and a day after, and hundreds more tomorrows to come, now.)

(Maddie felt exhausted as she closed the apartment door behind her, padding down the hallway to her bedroom. Chimney was fast asleep, and Maddie happily tucked herself under his free arm, letting her tiredness wash over her.

“Howie?” she asked softly, Chimney humming a quiet yes. “How do you feel about getting married?”)

Buck winked at Christopher as he made the paper airplane the little boy made whizz through the air, taking a sip of his beer as he watched the chaos unfold in the Nash-Grant backyard. He and Maddie had found a coven, to join – one that didn’t feel as stifling as the one they’d left behind in Pennsylvania, a mismatched group who met once a month to discuss charms and hexes and the newest episodes of The Bachelor – but Buck couldn’t help but feel like this, right here, was his real coven, his real family.

Sure – half of them had no clue magic even existed, even as Maddie and Chimney’s daughter adorably sneezed magic into the air (because of course Buck had been right) but that didn’t feel like it mattered so much anymore.

“You look happy,” Eddie commented quietly, passing Buck another beer as he wrapped a comforting arm around Buck’s waist.

Buck couldn’t help but smile at the blue plastic ring that still adorned Eddie’s finger – they’d gotten new wedding rings, fancy titanium ones that Maddie had tearfully treated them to – but Eddie and Buck had kept wearing the original silly plastic ones, too, the cheap blue a stark contrast to Eddie’s tan skin, but always a delicious reminder of how mad, and wonderful, and completely their own their love story was – a wedding before their first date, a second wedding on their six month anniversary. It felt like they’d done it backwards, sometimes – built a life together long before either of them had felt ready to admit to their true feelings.

Still, they’d gotten there in the end.

Buck pressed a brief kiss to Eddie’s lips. “I am,” he reassured.

Eddie hummed. “Good,” he leaned into Buck’s side, watching the chaos unfold around them. “Because so am I.”

**fin**.


End file.
